At that time, the Dragon King of the East Sea had taken a Principal Wife and a Concubine. The Principal Wife had a rigid and exacting temperament — strict, inflexible, and bound by rules in everything she did. Because she often misread her husband's intentions, she would dig in her heels or give him the cold shoulder. Over time, the rift between them deepened, and their encounters increasingly dissolved into arguments. She would trip him up both openly and behind his back, causing him no small amount of grief. He had petitioned the Jade Emperor for divorce and remarriage on multiple occasions, but the Jade Emperor neither consented nor refused — the unspoken message being: *this is a private matter within your household; you must resolve it yourself.*
Now that the Dragon King had been formally honored with the Emperor's title, he naturally took the opportunity to raise the matter of his marriage. To his complete shock, the Emperor summoned the Dragon King's Principal Wife — and not only refused to grant the divorce, but proceeded to confer upon her the title of Dragon Queen, appointing her to assist the Dragon King in governing his domain.
Heavens — this decision struck the Dragon King like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky, landing a crushing blow to both his heart and his pride.
Because the Emperor was the Son of Heaven, endowed with the divine authority to govern the dragon clan and determine its future, the Dragon King had no power to overturn the imperial decision. He could only return to the Dragon Palace in silent dejection.
At this moment, his Concubine — gentle, considerate, graceful, and beautiful — came to comfort her husband. "My lord," she said softly, "could it be that since taking me as your concubine, you have lavished too much attention upon me and neglected the Principal Wife — and that this neglect is what has caused the estrangement between you today?" The Concubine told him that he needed time alone to untangle the distance between himself and the Principal Wife, and that until he had identified the root of the problem and taken the initiative to address it, she would not see him. With that, she packed her belongings, left the Dragon Palace, and returned to the modest, humble dwelling where the Dragon King had lived before receiving his royal title.
The Concubine was already pregnant at the time. Yet for the sake of the greater good — and to help restore her husband's relationship with the Principal Wife — she left without saying a word, accompanied only by a single handmaiden who had come with her as part of the marriage arrangements, the one person she kept by her side to care for the child she carried.
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